1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a rendering control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in order to improve a processing speed upon processing a page description language (PDL) for printing an image, one method is to improve the performance of a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and another method is to use a hardware accelerator (which may be abbreviated as HA). A HA is a unit configured to make it possible to improve a processing speed of a personal computer, improve a display speed on a screen, increase the number of colors that can be displayed, and so forth. A processing speed may be improved by replacing a part or a function of a computer with a HA, or carrying out a process by a HA, which process has been carried out by software. The method of using a HA to improve a processing speed is advantageous in that it is possible to reduce the cost although this method lacks versatility.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 8-139953 discloses a technology of having both functions of hardware rendering and software rendering to improve a printing speed, and switching between these functions according to whether rendering of a band size can be carried out.
However, in a case where a HA is used to carry out rendering to a band, it is not possible to carry out parallel processing with a CPU since it is necessary to keep the rendering order of drawing commands. Thereby, it may not be possible to efficiently use the CPU and the HA.